A weekly dose of insights, tools, and opportunities for EMDR therapists; designed to support your growth, sharpen your practice, and connect you with what's next.
7 EMDR Mistakes That Slow Down Healing
|
Hey there, Every EMDR therapist remembers those first post-training sessions.
If you've ever felt this way, you're in good company. Even the most skilled EMDR practitioners started somewhere (and most made the same common mistakes along the way). Today, I want to share the patterns and mistakes I've noticed in consultation with many therapists new to EMDR. Not to criticize, but to normalize these challenges and offer a clear pathway beyond them. Let’s get started. Mistake #1: Rushing Through Preparation The enthusiasm to "get to the good stuff" of processing is understandable. You've learned this powerful approach and want to see your clients benefit from bilateral stimulation and reprocessing as quickly as possible. But the thing is… Rushing the process often leads to abbreviated preparation phases:
Then processing begins, and unexpected emotional flooding or dissociation occurs, leading to outcomes from less-than-desirable to potentially-harmful. Some clients even leave therapy after a session like that. This is why preparation is so important in EMDR. It’s the foundation for successful processing. Think of it as building a safety net before walking the high wire:
Even with seemingly stable clients, proper preparation prevents disruptions later and builds the therapeutic relationship necessary for deep processing work. I always look for when the client and myself are both confident they can handle internal tension with the skills they’ve developed, and depending on the client that can take weeks to months. And that’s ok. A prepared client leads to more successful outcomes later. Mistake #2: Targeting Memories That Are Too Large "Let's work on your childhood trauma.” It’s no easy task! Yet many new EMDR therapists attempt to process generalized experiences, entire relationships, or years-long periods of adversity in a single target. And when the target is too large, processing tends to loop, stall, or scatter across different experiences without resolution. That’s why specificity is so important. Instead of "my abusive relationship," target a specific representative incident: "The night he threw the plate at the wall." Make sure to pay attention to:
Remember that you can always expand the work to related experiences later. Starting with a clear, specific target creates a focused pathway for adaptive processing. Mistake #3: Over-Directing the Processing This pattern typically emerges from anxiety about "doing it right." New therapists often interrupt processing to ask additional questions, offer interpretations, or redirect the client's attention because what's emerging doesn't seem "relevant" to the target. Instead, trust your client's brain to lead the processing. Trust in the protocol and the client’s internal healer. The AIP model tells us that the brain naturally moves toward adaptive resolution when blocks are removed. Your role is to create the right conditions for their brain to do what it needs:
If nothing else, remember this: The less you interfere with the natural processing, the more profound the shifts tend to be. This requires tolerating your own anxiety about whether processing is "on track." Mistake #4: Confusing Processing Plateaus with Completion When SUD levels drop from 9 to 3 or 4, new therapists often feel pressure to wrap up processing and move to installation. This can leave disturbing material partially processed and contribute to incomplete sessions. Processing plateaus are actually normal! In fact, these temporary slowdowns often signal that the work is reaching deeper layers rather than concluding. When intensity decreases but hasn't fully resolved:
Remember that thorough processing often follows a pattern of intensity reduction, plateau, another processing wave, another plateau, and so on until genuine resolution occurs. And sometimes a 3-4 reflects a client’s uncertainty about how the resolution they’ve found is going to play out in the future. If you’ve done all of the above and it still remains a 3-4, they might just need some time in the seat living life with this new paradigm. If they’ve already developed positive cognitions around it, future templates can help with this. Mistake #5: Skipping the Body Scan or Future Templates After successful desensitization and installation, it's tempting to consider the work complete. The body scan phase often gets abbreviated or skipped entirely, especially when session time is running short. The body scan isn't just a procedural checkbox. It's an important verification step that processing is complete. Residual disturbance often appears somatically even when emotional and cognitive components appear resolved. When you honor the body scan:
Which means that ultimately… Making time for thorough body scanning saves time (not wastes it) by preventing the need to revisit partially processed material. But what about future templates? Skipping future templates is actually a more common mistake than skipping body scan. And to be honest, there’s not always time in a session for it. Additionally, there may still be other unprocessed memories with similar negative cognition themes that need to be addressed before future templates are warranted. But here’s why it’s important to get to future templates with your clients:
Don’t skip future templates! It sets a stronger foundation for the client’s future outcomes. Mistake #6: Inadequate Closure When Processing Is Incomplete Sometimes processing can't be completed in a single session. New therapists often struggle with how to close these sessions, leaving clients feeling uncontained or worried about managing until the next appointment. Even seasoned therapists can neglect this sometimes. Skillful closure is important. You can do this by:
Rather than seeing incomplete processing as a problem, frame it as a normal part of the therapeutic process. The client's system may need time to integrate what has already shifted before continuing. Mistake #7: Forgetting the Importance of the Therapeutic Relationship It's easy to get lost in the protocol, but as great as EMDR is, study after study has shown the most important predictor of good mental health treatment outcomes is a strong therapeutic relationship. In the focus on mastering EMDR's technical aspects, some new therapists lose sight of the foundational importance of the therapeutic relationship. They become so protocol-focused that the human connection fades into the background. But here's the truth: EMDR is more than just a therapy. It’s about the ongoing relationship between the therapist and the client. Becoming a masterful EMDR therapist requires technical precision with genuine human connection. In other words… The protocol serves the relationship (not the other way around). Which of these challenges have you struggled with? And if you're still working through some of these challenges, what support would be most helpful? Until next week, Chris P.S. We’re working hard to build a robust ecosystem supporting therapists in advancing their EMDR practice, marketing to niche clients, and connecting with other providers for support and community. Learn more about the pilot and apply to join the community for free! |
EMDR Therapist Weekly
A weekly dose of insights, tools, and opportunities for EMDR therapists; designed to support your growth, sharpen your practice, and connect you with what's next.
Hey there, Last week, I shared how EMDR therapists (like you) can ethically support clients in the preparation and integration phases of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Since then, I've been thinking more about the technical side of this work, specifically questions like: "What does EMDR integration actually look like after a psychedelic experience?" and "How do you adapt the protocol when clients return with challenging or confusing material?" These are exactly the right questions to be...
Hey there, As psychedelic-assisted therapy moves toward mainstream acceptance (with FDA breakthrough therapy designations for both MDMA and psilocybin and more states adopting legislature for legal psychedelic therapy), many EMDR therapists are asking the same question: “How can I ethically incorporate psychedelic integration into my practice?” Luckily for you, I've probably spent more time researching this exact question than many people in the EMDR community. So much so that I gave a...
Hey there, I know a lot of therapists are experiencing burnout these days, so I want to double-tap this topic. Not everyone reading this is experiencing burnout, but hopefully you’ll remember this if you do in the future, or use it as a way to help prevent it altogether! For some, the cases can start feeling routine, and the breakthroughs become just another clinical outcome to document. The passion that drew you to trauma work gets buried under years of holding space for others' pain...